“In School” Birthday Celebration

(I have precisely 13 minutes until I need to start loading the younger two into boosters to get to Bun’s Halloween Parade… Make it work!)

Friday was Carter’s Big Day to celebrate his birthday in class.  He wanted cupcakes and since I knew I was making a chocoholic’s delight cake for his real birthday, I made some simple yellow cake with white frosting and cocoa pearls.

I am a mom, therefore I own one of those stacking cupcake carriers.  I might need a second soon, because class sizes are over 30 for the bigger grades and Bun’s class was 23 kids last year, but 33 kids this year.

All the kids circled around Carter, who really was the center of attention for a good 15 minutes of class time.  That’s a big deal for our very-middle child, who sometimes feels pushed out of the spotlight.

The kids all danced around him, 6 of them acting as his candles and the rest being the cake itself.  They also took turns telling him their special birthday wish for him, and many added in, “I love you,” as part of the wish.  Sooooo sweet.  Finally, each child in his class drew him a picture which was bound up in “Carter’s Birthday Book,” for him to take home.  I love those pictures so much and hope Carter enjoys it in years to come, looking back at how one classmate wished to give him a baby bird, and another said he’d give him flying saucers—with green aliens inside!

Cole was allowed to sit with the big kids and even go out to eat the treat.  Lookit him.. he’s so big he looks like he fits in.  :)

It was a lot of fun watching Carter enjoy his ‘time to shine’.  :)

(P.S. I didn’t manage to post even this in my 13 minutes.  We had a great time at the afternoon Halloween Parade and are back for a whole half hour before afternoon dismissal.)

Happy Halloween!

 
This year my crew is a vampire, cave girl, and Clone Trooper.

It was a super busy day.  Carter got to wear his costume to school the entire day, but Bunny had to bring hers to change into for the parade.  AM Kinder kids parade in the morning by themselves, but the rest of the school marches in the afternoon, so most of the school day was spent going to and from school, and hanging out there.  Also, I goofed in buying something for the Kinder Hween party and needed to go to the store right after drop off, then return asap to make sure no one was disappointed by not being able to do their mummy project.

When Cole and I arrived with that last box of gross Fruit By the Foot, the school was in the midst of a fire drill.  I almost had a heart attack, thinking I had misunderstood the time for the morning parade.  Oh well, the kids were awfully cute lined up in their costumes, so I grabbed my camera while I waited to be able to go into the classroom.

As you can see, Carter was very cooperative and didn’t mind me taking photos at all.  :)

Less than 2 hours later, with Cole in his costume, too, naturally, we were back to really watch the parade.

The teachers and staff always dress according to an overall theme, with each grade’s team dressing alike.  This year was sea life, or something like that, and the Kinder staff were… come on you can guess this… jellyfish!  (I thought Ms. Petersen, Carter’s teacher pictured above, might have been a very casually dressed Katy Perry before I saw the full costume.)

There was really only a very short while after the parade until dismissal, so most of the parade goers enjoyed spying on our little hobgoblins finishing their daily work.

Carter was dressed in Star Wars even under his costume, thanks to an AWESOME birthday present from his buddies Desmond and Anika.  I’m not sure who loves his shirt me, him or me.

We went home, gobbled down a quick lunch, and returned for Act II, the “big parade.”  Carter, my monkey boy, spent the entire time up high, searching for his sister and any other ‘big kids’ he knows.

Bunny and I had a great time making her costume this year.  Finding costumes for girls over the age of 6, but under the age of 20 can be really challenging.  What is with the sexy girl costumes?  Who designs these, and more importantly, who approves the designs??  Anyway, I am thankful for Family Fun and their online instructions for mere mortals who are not expert seamstresses.

After another round of “let’s go home for a few minutes—please keep you shoes ON—then we need to go back to school” for the final dismissal, we were home for the long afternoon before trick or treating.

Bring on the pumpkins!

Bunny and Carter cleaned out and carved their pumpkins all by themselves, with me only cutting the lid.  They did a great job, and there was only one little nicked thumb to show for it.

Bunny carved the first and second pumpkin, from left to right.  The next one is the one Cole and I made together, him helping to empty is and instructing me to make a happy guy.

I think Carter’s deserves its own photo, because he really put a lot of work into it—and some blood, too!

Finally it was dark, Paul was home, and the kids tore through the neighborhood begging for treats.  Hope your Halloween was fun, too!

6 Years Ago

Close Up Sleeping, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

We welcomed our wonderful little Carter into our hearts. We love you so much, and hope you have a fantastic day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARTER!

~18 Miles

Last weekend the kids’ elementary school held its annual Walk-a-thon fundraiser.  It was Carter’s first year to participate, and he was very excited to finally be “really” doing it with his sister.  We arrived and set up at about 9:45 and snagged a nice spot right near the track but not too close to a speaker—there is a DJ and the speakers are LOUD.

A highlight was when Firehouse #9 came by.  A couple of dads work there and were on duty, so they swung by, much to the delight of, well, everyone.

I bet he took a great picture from up there!

All told, Bunny and Carter walked just a lap to two shy of 18 miles between the two of them, ate a few hot dogs and sno-cones, and then it was 3:00, time to pack up and head home for some time  rinsing off the track dust in the pool.  Good times.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

First Kindergarten Field Trip

Though it didn’t work out that I could chaperone, because there is no way I’d vary from the preschool schedule for my still-anxious Cole, and it conflicted with pickup time, I did get to sneak a few bookend photos.

Kid-made shirts to help them wrangle the ~80 kids at the pumpkin patch.

Drop off chaos in the classroom.

Pulling up as they return.  Carter’s first bus ride – it was so loud, he said.

All done!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Cookin’ The Book: Pioneer Woman’s “Katie’s Roasted Corn Salad” and Sangria

Ages and ages ago, I bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks. For fun, I decided to cook every one of her recipes (in the book, not her site!), anrd I was on a roll for a while.  Then, I hit a place where I’d made a lot of the recipes and the rest were so starchy or, well, dessert (we don’t have that often), that I got stuck.
However, recently I did use two recipes from the book, and, though they are repeats, I realized I’d forgotten to write about them the first time ‘round.  I know, it’s hard to believe, but I do eat a lot of things that I don’t even take photos of!  Imagine!  Just like normal people… ;)

I made a half recipe of the Sangria, because the full recipe calls for 2 bottles each of red and white wine for starters and that seemed like an… ambitious quantity even though we did have friends over.  It’s refreshing and tasty, too—perfect for a warm afternoon.

This blurriness is the roasted corn salad, which really has a lot more going for it than just corn.  I did veer away from the recipe just a little here, as I had heirloom summer squash fresh from the CSA share while the recipe calls for yellow squash.  To me, they’re practically the same thing.  The dressing is a glorious balsamic vinaigrette.  This was Paul’s favorite dish that evening.
Both recipes are book only, so I can’t share links, but trust me, they’re both worth making—and repeating, as the case may be.  I also made her Roasted Beef Tenderloin and Creamy Rosemary Potatoes (link to nearly identical recipe HERE) for that same meal, thus garnering two new checks in the book, and probably three pounds of mystery weight to lose that next week.  ;)  I just counted, and there are still 20 recipes left, about half of which are desserts.  Maybe I’ll finish this someday, after all!

Kid Bait

If you bring your little, cute, and furry pet out to the front yard to play, you might just find some extra kids there after a few minutes.

Who’s a spoiled piggy?

Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!

We went to “a” pumpkin patch yesterday.  Not “the” pumpkin patch, which is more of an excursion, just one a few blocks away, which, really is a pretty sorry excuse for a pumpkin patch, seeing as it’s a corner of a parking lot with the blacktop covered in blue tarp.  We’re jaded.

While it may be a pretty pathetic pumpkin patch, what it is is a really nice outside bouncer place.  Upon entry, you pay the fees, get the kids into wristbands, and off they go onto some incredible bouncy slides.

For a couple of weeks, every time we drove to Target we went past this lot and I was serenaded with a chorus of pleeeeeeases.  So, yesterday was the day.  They really have crazy prices that more or less force you to buy an all day pass, so I was determined they’d get their $15 per kid out of the place.  It wasn’t so hard, to be honest.

 

This shark slide was the one that got ‘em really going every time we drove by.  It is pretty crazy.

I kept thinking that it looked like Jaws here was spitting out kids that didn’t taste very good.

After about an hour and a half, everyone was thirsty, had to go potty, and was also hungry.  Since the ‘patch’ was open until 9:00, I got us all fed, grabbed sweaters from home, and we went back again for another hour and a half.  These three never stopped moving as afternoon turned to dusk and finally the moon and stars came out.

You can see how sweaty this bunch was near the end.  They all earned their baths that night!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Chocolaty, Salty, Pretzely…

…okay, that last one’s not a word.  It should be, okay?

I am a sucker for Matthew Mead’s seasonal magazines.  Saturday I was flipping through Autumn 2011, trying to decide what to make the next day when Paul asked me what I was looking at.  He assumed it was a Martha magazine, and when I told him about Matthew M. he wanted to look for a while.  Anyway, he developed an instant crush on a recipe and asked me to make it ASAP.  And an extra one to take to work to share.

His photos to go with the recipe for Chocolate Pretzel Tart are far superior to mine, especially since I didn’t remember to take a photo until I was boxing up the second tart for travel.  Fancy aluminum foil and all, it still looks good, and it tasted even better.

My word.  Pretzels in the crust?  Salt on top?  It is a very good thing I forced our guests to take home the 4 slices that remained Sunday, else I’d a been a nibbling on that until it was gone, gone, gone.  I drizzled some warm Fleur de Sel Caramel (Trader Joe’s in a jar) on top when serving it.

Looking at that photo, I kind of wish I had one more nibble, though.  ;)